GM plans to offer Chevrolet Sonic-based EV

General Motors is intending to offer a new Chevrolet electric model in addition to its green-vehicle lineup that already includes the Volt plug-in hybrid and the Spark EV minicar, GM global product chief Mark Reuss confirmed during a presentation to investors.

Two people privy with the carmaker’s plans told Automotive News that the Detroit-based company is currently working on an electric vehicle derived from the current version of the Sonic subcompact.

The said EV would be able to travel around 200 miles on a single charge and would be rolled out sometime in 2017, the sources disclosed. In 2013, former GM chief executive Dan Akerson remarked that the carmaker was working on a car that would be able to have a range of about 200 miles.

GM is currently selling the Spark EV in two states -- Oregon and California – noting that people were wishing that the carmaker would sell the model “all around the country," Reuss said. The US carmaker is planning to roll out the next-generation Volt late next year or early 2016.

It posted a 13-percent drop in sales of the Volt in the first nine months of 2014 to 14,540 units.